The Millennial Generation has produced nothing of note culturally.

[Meursault]

I know there are those of you on the forum who object to the idea of personalized generations with unique identities as a pop-sociological construct, and it is. But the marketing experts who create the economy believe in the concept: consequentially it is real as long as they do.

Nine Inch Nails are on tour again. I'm far more excited to see Trent Reznor, who turns fifty this year, than I am to see any band with members my own age - and half of his - in it.

We may be remembered for tremendous strides in technology, and in politics. But I cannot think of a twentysomething or thirtysomething writer or director or visual artist of today who will be long remembered. And our music - acoustic rock with whispered, waif-like vocals, or overproduced EDM - is bilge.

[The Simpsons Cinematic Universe]

LE WRONG GENERATION?

[Meursault]

Just one back. If I could, I'd have been born about 1974.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Heh. For once you have a point on culture, though I am not the type who whines about "being born in the wrong generation."

Where is this generation's Bob Dylan? He/She is out there somewhere.

[Meursault]

There are lots of wannabe Millie Bob Dylans, to the extent sh**tty jangly indie rock dominates the white teenaged middle-class musical scene. What is sorely missing are the wannabe Jim Morrisons. Music has gotten incredibly tame, even since 2000.

[Bacon King]

1. Subjective opinions and tastes of a single individual can in no way measure the entire objective cultural value of an entire generation's creative output, to whatever extent such a thing can be objectively measured

2. To a large extent, cultural endeavors are largely if not entirely subjective and therefore their value only exists insofar as any normative consensus exists among society at large (which again, a single individual's thoughts have no direct relationship with)

3. You're disregarding entire genres with your broad generalizations; for example our generation has produced a lot of great hip hop (not like top forty stuff necessarily)

4. Trent Reznor's cultural output does not match the norms of the "marketing experts who create the economy" and he only became commercially successful in the mainstream because of the widespread fame he received on a largely underground scene. It is shortsighted to assume there aren't people out there in our generation who won't be following a similar path, or to assume that younger popstars who have been thrust into greatness by the recording industry are in any way representative of our generation as a whole

5. If there is any accuracy to your assessment I'd posit that it's only because the increasingly oligarchic nature of mainstream media prohibits easy access to artists who can't be trusted by their financiers to be conventionally commercially successful so those who don't sound like everyone else are forced into niche fandoms that can be brought together by the internet



tl;dr your argument parallels that whole "DAE le 90's? Ima 90's kid and everything today sucks" thing, plz reconsider your viewpoint

[Meursault]

Of course my opinion is subjective. You spent three paragraphs pointing out the obvious.

And I'm not quite a 90s kid - I was born in 1989, making me a bit too young to have caught music at its edgiest. And it's not like there isn't loud and fast Millie music - it's just incredibly stupid. Like Five Finger Death Punch.

[courts]

i actually would agree with you but honestly the only nine inch nails album i can tolerate is ghosts thats about it. its just boring pseudo industrial

my theory is that we're probably going to have to wait at least another 10 years before the current era of cultural blandness and stagnation wears itself out. if nothing else because by then a substantial amount of adults will exist that don't remember the 20th century

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

There are lots of wannabe Millie Bob Dylans, to the extent sh**tty jangly indie rock dominates the white teenaged middle-class musical scene. What is sorely missing are the wannabe Jim Morrisons. Music has gotten incredibly tame, even since 2000.

There has to be one of them who can actually write a song like him out there instead of just poorly singing nonsense that they think is like Dylan.

[Meursault]

NIN's new material is certainly bland EDM, and TReznor is probably partly to blame for the deluge of boring beep-blip-bloop muzak. But my first love is Broken. "Last" hits like a shotgun blast to the ballsack.

[courts]

Of course my opinion is subjective. You spent three paragraphs pointing out the obvious.

And I'm not quite a 90s kid - I was born in 1989, making me a bit too young to have caught music at its edgiest. And it's not like there isn't loud and fast Millie music - it's just incredibly stupid. Like Five Finger Death Punch.

i have found myself getting a lot more into grind core but even stuff like that is still largely dominated by people born in the '70s, at least in terms of the people heading the actual bands (trap them, modern life is war, etc.).

in any case nin was always looked down on as hot topic mall goth type stuff by most of the industrial scene even when they were comparatively better than now. i'm actually almost annoyed at typing this because its such a predictable opinion to go with. its fun to play contrarian but sometimes, well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kqYD1gkgZs

[Meursault]

That said, I wish industrial would make a comeback, and I don't care whether it's as Foetus/Coil/:wumpscut: weirdness or as Big Black/Ministry/Marilyn Manson rock. The youth is thirsty for ironic angst. And I sh**t on that garbage the industry tried selling us on in 2011-12, with the bass drops.

[Meursault]

Sure, NIN were mallgoth f****try. Manson even moreso. That's probably why I like them (well, that and the sheer work that the latter put into everything on his records save the music itself).

[courts]

no chemlab or skinny puppy or pig face? good call on foetus underrated band

as far as big names go in industrial or 'industrial rock' (as in stuff that at least appeared on mtv once) the only one i can think of that doesn't totally suck is ministry. as far as i can tell industrial rock is basically synonymous with ass at this point though

[Indy Texas]

I read an article a few months ago that posited that American popular culture more or less hasn't gone anywhere since the early '90s - everything that has come since then has been derivative repackaging of earlier artistic innovations.

It suggested that the Silent Generation may be the last generation to "not get" the culture and vernacular that emerged after they left young adulthood. Compare the archetypal '60s/'70s family where the Archie Bunker-esque father yells at the TV and can't understand why his kids dress like danged hippies and listen to weird music to the more common scenario of modern families where mom and her daughter share each others' clothes all the time and a parent will hear a Top 40 hit on the radio and remark that it sounds quite similar to a song that was popular when they were young.

The cultural awareness gap between someone born in 1995 and 1975 is marginal. The gap between someone born in 1955 and 1935 is a veritable chasm.

[courts]

tbh silents and x-ers both strike me as much more imaginative than people born sometime after the early 80s. let's not forget that most of the pioneers of pop culture in the 60s and 70s were actually part of the former group. that said obviously its a bit early to write us off

[Meursault]

If you can stand industrial metal, check out The Kovenant. "New World Order" is a delightful bit of totalitarian cheese.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

What I've described in the past as 'femme singer-songwriter' material can be quite good these days, but I understand if it's not what you're looking for or relevant to your interests. I don't mean that in a snide way--it's genuinely not for everyone. But, just off the top of my head, some of Vienna Teng's angrier/crueler/more cynical work might be worth a look for at least some of the posters ahead of me.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Do you wish for your very own personal Leni Riefenstahl to solve this problem? Or is that how you see your own future, Einzige?

[traininthedistance]

I read an article a few months ago that posited that American popular culture more or less hasn't gone anywhere since the early '90s - everything that has come since then has been derivative repackaging of earlier artistic innovations.

You've only got so many notes in the scale, and so many instruments in common use- after enough decades of searching for new combinations, it starts to get hard.  There's a reason Schoenberg and Cage did what they did... and with its more limited harmonic palette, it's no big surprise that pop music might start to run out of new sounds after awhile.

And honestly being derivative isn't necessarily always a bad thing, so long as the original influences are solid.

[tik 🪀✨]

I think that as a result of the internet and globalization in general that everything has become so accessible that nothing feels new anymore. Mainstream music has therefore become blander because it needs to appeal to the broadest audience to be competitive. It's easier to ignore it when your entertainment options are so vast, immediately met, and the option of cosying into niches is easier.

If anything within our generation there has been an absolute explosion of cultural output because of the new ease of finding an audience, ease of creating with newer technologies, and ease of buying formerly expensive tools that shut out everyday people from creating. Because there is so much it's difficult to find things that really stand out.

The last time I remember hearing a song that made me stop and think "I have never heard anything like this" was the first time I heard dubstep. And that's already feeling old and played.

I guess the takeaway is that even though within our generation there doesn't seem to be any outstanding breakthrough artist or new genre, we are still shaping the way people people will consume and find art  for the foreseeable future. And isn't that a little bit exciting?

[badgate]

[Paul Kemp]

More than the 90s, to be honest.



...but yea, it's no surprise that Meurwhatever is "le wrong generation."

[Marokai Backbeat]

Moreover, technology has also relieved budgetary and technical limitations on producing culture. Creators no longer need to appeal to mass audience to survive, and plenty of them choose not too.

This, more than anything else, is the important takeaway of this generation. We've basically seen, if not the death of, then at least the severe decline in influence of the mono-culture. When we think of past decades, there is often a few large distinguishing things that encompassed all of pop culture. Tye-dye, grunge rock, bell bottoms, flannel, pong, disco, whatever.

These broad cultural touchstones don't really exist in the same way today; everything's too decentralized now. People don't watch the same 6 o'clock news channel, they watch their network of choice. People don't read the paper, they follow their own collection of websites. YouTube videos instead of mainstream television, indie flicks over the summer blockbuster. I've spent the last several days watching Summer Games Done Quick. It appeals to such a subculture of a subculture of a subculture, and you're not going not going to see most people on the street have even the slightest clue what that is or why it exists, but people in that group live and breathe it.

Subcultures have always existed, obviously, but the ease with which the internet has allowed them to come into being and thrive on the support of a tiny group of instantly-connected individuals mostly just means that the "millennial generation's" cultural contribution will be that you can now easily create your own instead.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

They will eventually.  Give us time.